Another "Is My Cat Pregnant Post"

Hi everyone. Love the forum and hoping you can help.

There's a family a couple of streets away from me who have about 8 cats, maybe more. They take terrible care

of them: never let them inside, never feed them apart from scraps of food thrown out into garden, none of them

are neutered, and so on.

They had a female who was pregnant and looked a real mess, so I started caring for her, feeding her, letting her

sleep inside etc. She came back one day and had clearly had her kittens. This was about 6 months ago and now

I see several kittens sleeping outside this family's house. It's probably the ones she had last year.

Since then, since I've been taking better care of her, she's kind of moved in here. She sleeps here most

nights and is fed well. The trouble is, I think she's pregnant. She was in heat a few weeks ago and there were

tom cats all over (most of them belong to this same family). I'm not prepared to let her keep going through this

so if she's pregnant I think I'll care for her and make sure she has the kittens with no problems, find them great

homes (I'll probably keep one myself to ease the task). Then I want to get her spayed.

Other people have taken in cats from this family before. I don't think this family gives a damn really.

I see no reason not to save this lovely little cat from them. Get her spayed and give her a happy, non

stressful life.

She's much bigger than she was a few weeks ago and she's not eating any more than normal so she can't

really just be fat. And her nipples look pink to me. But I'm not experienced so I can't be sure. If she's going

\to have kittens in a few weeks I'd like to know so I can prepare.

I'll include a few pictures. One of her pinkish nipples, one of her size, and one from 2 months back so you can

compare. If she's pregnant she's be about 4 weeks along I think.


Here's her size from about 2 months ago.


Here's her size now.


And here's her nipples.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice you can offer!

Kris.

The short answer in all cases is, if she's over 4 months old, unspayed, and has been outdoors (or near a tomcat), then she almost certainly is . Especially this time of year. Her nipples do look like she's pregnant, but otherwise she's so fluffy it's hard to tell.

Your plan of helping her sounds great.

Perhaps a pity you didnt spayed her earlier, as you yourself do mention spaying.

Although, as you yourself talk about spaying, you surely know you can spay her even now....

Not so nice aborting the fosters, but medically it isnt yet really difficult.

So, if it is possible for you, consider it, please.

If abort is NOT possible for you or your vet, please proceed with your main plan.   

And about the neighbours cats, and other free wandering cats there... It is as it is. I suppose the city authorities are aware of the situation.

A way to help up the situation, is to neuter every cat. Beginning with the females...  Who and how, is next question. But this is the solution for some of most desperate needs. It is also what can be done with reasonable effort.  Essentially a TNR.

Tx for caring!

Good luck!

Hi Stefan,

I did consider spaying her before she got pregnant. What stopped me was the feeling that she wasn't my cat. Even

though it would have been for her own good, I wasn't sure if it was right to spay someone else's cat, even if they

didn't care.

Now that she's pregnant again (almost certainly) it's confirmed to me that she can't keep going through this. If she

isn't spayed she'll be pregnant 4 times a year for the rest of her life. That's crazy. And it appears like her past kittens

are just left to fend for themselves and end up living wild in the trees.

So since her original owners don't care about her at all I think it's the right thing to do to spay her. But I don't want

to abort her current litter. I couldn't do that, especially when she looks to be many weeks along. But don't fear. I'm

the world's biggest animal lover. She will get ridiculously good care taken of her, as will the kittens. And every single

one of them will go to a loving home - it'll be my mission!

I'm glad I found this forum too. If she's pregnant I'm sure I'll need lots of advice over the coming weeks.

Hi Kris 

I'm new here and in the exact same situation as you. For several months I have been feeding a female whose "owners" live a few houses down. She is now heavily pregnant, and about a week ago we were able to coax her inside our house. We did get permission from the "owner", she basically saw that we had been feeding her and said "if you can catch her and her last batch of kittens you can have them all" 

So we have her in my son's bedroom (he doesn't sleep in there and rarely uses the room) and have 4 nesting areas set up for her. I think she was mated on January 1st, so she's got another 2 weeks probably. 

We are spaying her and the kittens once they are weaned. She'll never have to go through this again...

Your girl looks pregnant to me. Do you remember when you saw lots of toms around outside? We had about 3 days where there was a solid grey tom who hung out in my front yard, so that's how I knew it was around the 1st. If you can pinpoint when there was the most "activity" it will help you tremendously!

Amy

Please reconsider. The best thing you can do is get her spayed right now, regardless of being pregnant or not. The cats are not cared for by the so called neighbor. All the cats need to be neutered. Period. There is no other way. Kitten season is upon us and it is the responsibility of all of us who have the opportunity to spay/neuter the cats, to do so. Hun, seriously, the unborn kittens will have no good quality of life, hard as it might be. All roaming cats should be neutered.

How do you know the kittens won't have a good quality of life? I'll be caring for them personally and finding them great homes. I'll almost certainly give one of them a great life myself. In the event that I can't find homes for some of them, I've already found a couple of rehoming charities who will find homes. It's not cheap - I'll have to pay all the kittens' vets costs and rehoming fees. But like I said, no one cares more about animals than I do, and I'll happily pay whatever they ask.

There are some horribly irresponsible pet owners out there, but that doesn't mean that every cat pregnancy is some kind of sin with abortions the only salvation.

I don't take decisions about animals lightly.

I wish you the best for finding good homes for the kittens. Good to make sure whomever you give the kittens to gets them neutered. Best of luck to you.

If for some reason good homes can't be found I might have a lot of cats in a few months time! Trust me, one way or another these kittens will have wonderful lives. I started a business 3 years ago and the thing that drives me every day is to grow that business until it's big enough to finance the main goal I have in my life: to open up a cat sanctuary.

This is one litter of kittens that no one needs to worry about. Well, except that I'm completely new to this and have no idea what's coming next! Still, this forum is going to be a great help.

I am so glad you are committed to this litter. I wish more people were like you. I have no experience with pregnant cats to offer, but please keep us updated.

P.S. I love your goal of opening a cat sanctuary. Best wishes for your success with that.

Thanks vball!

Actually, while I've got some cat lovers checking out this thread, I might ask another question.

I explained earlier that this cat originally belonged to a family that doesn't care for its pets. Not at all. Well, for the past few months she's lived here almost constantly and this family has never expressed any concern about where she is. I'm not sure they even know she's gone. She pretty much used to live in the trees outside their house.

Anyway, after she has her kittens I obviously want to have her spayed. Should I just do that? Is that the right thing to do or am I breaking a law by spaying a cat that might technically belong to someone else?

This family isn't the kind you approach, if you know what I mean. Very unpleasant people. And they would say no to having her spayed just because it was what i wanted to do. Should I just have her spayed and let her continue having a lovely life here with me? She loves it here. She's in heaven. She doesn't even really want to go out anymore. I think such a hard start in life has turned her into an indoor cat!

I would just keep her. She sounds more like a stray than someone's pet. It definitely sounds like she enjoys being with you more. Can't blame her!

keep her and bless your heart for the wonderful thing your doing for her and the babies
 

Since you haven't said where you live no-one can tell you if you would be breaking a law in spaying her.  However I would just go ahead.

And in my view, rather than open a sanctuary (which can be a bottomless pit), the best thing to do with your money is encourage people to neuter their cats, and TNR the ferals.  This is something you can start on right now, and you don't need premises and so on to do it, just a vet you can pursuade to do cheap neutering and early neutering plus a few traps and some transport.  You can do a website for free (look at Wordpress.com) and you can probably get publicity for free as well in the local newspapers and on the radio.  Maybe you can get interviewed - if you do, emphasise the health benefits especially for female cats of greatly reduced risk of breast cancer, no risk of pyometra or a complicated delivery, and a greatly reduced risk (for both sexes) of FIV and FeLV.

If I were in your position, and I have been in the past, I would keep that cat, get her spayed, etc. She is a stray that has been tossed away by those people. I am certain she has no microchip either, so you can get her chipped when she is spayed and has her shots. She needs rescuing and you are doing a wonderful thing by doing so not to mention saving many more kittens from being born in the wild. Good luck with all of your endeavors and I agree with OS above in that you can start right now with getting a TNR program started in your neighborhood. There is such a need for people like yourself wanting to take action to help feral cats.